Frostpunk Faith Or Order?

Winterhome has fallen and Hope has fallen to an all time low! People must be given a purpose so they can hope again. Should it be through Order and Discipline or Faith and Spiritual Growth?

Order Laws are better than Faith Laws. The combined production boost of 60% provided by the Foreman ability and Agitator Building has no equivalent in the Faith Laws. By using Order laws and abilities, you can reduce the number of Londoner losses when you sign the New Order Law.

Both sets of laws are designed regain Hope and to control and finally get the Londoners to disband without any bloodshed. These laws mainly provide production boosts from some of the Order Laws and Medical boosts from some of the Faith Laws.

Frostpunk Order and Discipline Laws

With the Order and Discipline Laws I had much more difficulty controlling the Londoners than I did with the Faith and Spiritual Growth Laws. The first, and only law available at first is the Neighborhood Watch Law. This allows you to build Watchtowers and after you build a Watchtower people living nearby gain a little hope, so placing it next to a lot of buildings makes it more effective. It’s a passive effect.

One of the best things I liked about the Order and Discipline laws was the Foreman ability for which the Faith and Spiritual Growth laws have no equivalent for. Any workplace you assign a Forman to increases workplace efficiency by 40%, a pretty healthy increase. This increase only lasts 24 hours so putting the workforce on a 24-hour shift is a great way to get maximum efficiency out of the use of the Foreman. It costs 10 Food Rations to use it and requires a two-day cooldown period before you can use it again at the same workplace. That only applies to the facility it is used at, you can still employ a foreman at other workplaces if you have the Food rations to support it.

Frostpunk Agitator Building

The Agitator building, which I didn’t use but wanted to mention, is also a production boosting building that will increase the efficiency of Workplaces it is close to by 20%. Unlike the Foreman this effect is active for as long as the building is active.

Frostpunk Watch Towers

If you sign the New Order Law Watchtowers can be dismantled since they only affect Hope and Hope is no longer a problem after instituting the New Order law. This frees up space, resources, and personnel.

Frostpunk Propaganda Center

The Propaganda Center has the ability to issue news bulletins which increases hope. The increase in Hope is noticeable and worth the cost of investing in it.

Frostpunk Guard Stations

Guard Stations have a dual effect, they can raise hope and reduce discontent by sending out Patrols. It costs 10 Food rations to employ patrols and they have a one-day cooldown period. Although a Patrol only increases hope slightly it does have a big effect at reducing discontent.

All things considered, my city was better off using the Order and Discipline Laws.

Frostpunk Prisons

Prisons can be used to encourage misguided people change their ways. You can order a roundup and troublemakers will be imprisoned for four days, causing discontent to fall. This ability has a one day cool down period so it can be used more frequently than most other abilities.

Frostpunk New Order Law, The Ultimate Order and Discipline Law

As the days counted down it became obvious to me that I was not going to eliminate the Londoners peacefully. As a prelude to signing the New Order Law I made everyone take a Pledge of Loyalty. This gave me a permanent Hope bonus although I didn’t notice any increase. I knew Hope would not be a problem shortly anyway. The Pledge also raised discontent slightly.

Once the Pledge was taken by everyone, I proceeded to reduce Discontent and the number of Londoners as much as possible before putting the New Order Law into effect.

This is the ultimate solution to the Londoners and to Hope being a problem, after this law is signed there is only Obedience and no Hope to worry about. If Londoners want to live, they need to leave the group and become loyal citizens, those who don’t will fight and die.

You’ll get a warning that signing this Law will result in bloodshed and that up to 25% of the people will fight it. During my implementation of the law 10 citizens died, it would probably have been higher if I hadn’t done my best to reduce the number of Londoners. After the Law was fully implemented discontent increased barely, it was hardly noticeable.

As a “perk” I got to build an execution platform next to the Generator for public executions. If discontent becomes a problem executing a troublemaker reduces it greatly.

I struggled more with Hope and the Londoners with these laws but overall, I think they were the best overall approach for the city due to their production bonuses.

Frostpunk Faith and Spiritual Growth Laws

By using the Faith Laws, I was actually able to eliminate the Londoners peacefully with no bloodshed, these laws seem to do a much better job at increasing Hope. The first and only law available when you choose the Faith Laws is the House of Prayer. This allows you to build a House of Prayer so Sermons can be preached, and nearby residents can go to pray, which raises Hope.

For me the best things about the Faith set of laws was the Temple, House of Healing and Faith Keepers. The Temple has 4 very useful abilities and the House of Healing frees up Engineers. Faith Keepers can be used as peacekeepers while raising Hope and lowering Discontent

Just living close to a House of Prayer is enough to raise people’s hope and it has an area of effect, so placing it where if can influence the most people is the best approach. A House of Prayer, like the Temple, can conduct sermons which cost nothing and raise Hope slightly. They can also conduct Evening Prayers but cost 20 food rations. They have a more substantial effect on Hope than evening prayers and have a 2 day cooldown period.

Frostpunk Evening Prayers

Evening Prayers is probably the next best early law to sign since it doesn’t require you to build any buildings, and each use of prayer has a chance of convincing a Londoner to stay. Enacting the Evening Prayer Law opens the path to sign either the Temple Law or create the Faith Keepers.

Frostpunk Faith Keepers

Probably one of the better laws in this group, especially if your Clerics start getting beaten up. After building a Faith Keeper building and staffing it you can use Faith Keepers to break up protests and to have nighttime processions, which reduces discontent. The drawback to this law is that it will initially cause discontent to rise. They have the passive ability to raise Hope and lower Discontent, plus several abilities they can activate as well.

Using Public Penance will cause Hope to rise and Discontent to lower. There is no cost and there is a 3-day cooldown period. Captain’s Words costs nothing and reduces Discontent. There is a 2-day cooldown period. The Captain’s Words causes a significant drop in Discontent.

Frostpunk Temple

This building is one of the more effective buildings to use when dealing with Hope. It has the ability to conduct Evening Prayers, which costs 20 food rations and has a 2 day cooldown period. It can conduct Ceremonial Services, which cost 20 food rations and has a 4 day cooldown period and Sermons, which costs nothing but has a 2-day cooldown period.

A Ceremonial Service has more effect on Discontent than on Hope but it does affect both and it noticeably affects Discontent more than Hope.

The Temple also has the ability to use the Captain’s Word ability, which costs nothing and reduces Discontent significantly. It requires a 2-day cooldown period before it can be used again.

Occasionally a Londoner will come to a Temple and have a “Change of Heart,” reducing the number of Londoners. This passive ability can actually convert a lot of Londoners to loyal citizens willing to stay. Before the Londoners were completely eliminated my Temple had 15 “wrongdoers” who mended their ways and became loyal citizens who were willing to stay rather than go back to London.

Frostpunk Field Kitchens

Field Kitchens are good for raising the temperature of buildings in their area of effect by one level. They also provide hot meals to the surrounding buildings which gives a slight bump in Hope.

Frostpunk House of Healing

The House of Healing can be staffed by workers which is good for freeing up your Engineers for the more technical tasks. People will heal more slowly than if they were treated in an Infirmary, but they will eventually heal. They also provide a small hope bonus.

You also might be interested in (all articles are on this website):

What do Frostpunk Engineers do?

Is Frostpunk worth buying?

Frostpunk not working?

Frostpunk Londoners Eliminated

The buildings I mentioned are what I consider the major contributors to eliminating the Londoners peacefully. With several days left to spare, all the Londoners decided to stay, which was on day 22. No bloodshed, just loyal citizens

Frostpunk Protector of the Truth

Even though the Londoners had been eliminated I signed the Public Penance Law anyway. This enables the Captain’s Words ability that, when used, significantly reduces Discontent. This increased Discontent significantly when I signed it but since it was low at the time, I figured it was okay to sign it. The gain in the ability to reduce Discontent made it very worthwhile.

Forstpunk New Faith Law

I didn’t sign the New Faith Law since the Londoners were eliminated and Hope was under control. I wasn’t sure if bloodshed would still occur but since this law was unneeded I didn’t worry about it. If Hope becomes an issue later I am well positioned to sign it into law and remove the need for Hope altogether.

Frostpunk Faith vs Hope Economy

Using the Faith Laws, I eliminated the Londoners on day 22 and with the Order laws I had them eliminated by day 23, not much difference. Using the Faith Laws I had a higher population count, 283 for Faith vs 233 for Order which meant more jobs could be filled although less efficiently. I say less efficiently for the reasons below.

Looking at my Resources I had 593 coal with the Faith Laws and 1,508 coal with the Order laws, a huge difference. I also had more wood using Order Laws, 870 vs 557 for Faith, although when it came to steel Faith outperformed Order, 55 steel to 15 steel.

I know a lot of this is due to playstyle and strategy but all of it can’t be, I know the boost provided by abilities like the Foreman played a role in having more resources. All things considered, my city was better off using the Order and Discipline Laws.